Backtracks, the Austin-based podcasting platform, has announced it has raised $1.6 million in previously undisclosed investor-initiated funding. The money, which the company said it pocketed last June, is being used to develop new technologies.
“We are building the infrastructure of podcasting,” said founder and CEO Jonathan Gill. “We’re continuing to innovate our platform and product lines and are looking forward to announcing exciting upcoming releases and continuing to further growth in 2021 and beyond.”
Since it closed the Pre-Series A funding round, Backtracks has launched a suite of new products that enhance the ability of publishers and advertisers to understand and reach audiences with what it calls “next level analytics” and machine learning-based capabilities.
Gill said the recent round of funding – the second for Backtracks – underscores investor confidence in its model and “market validation during a time of uncertainty.”
Investors in this most recent round of funding include Moonshots Capital; KLI Capital; Bull Creek Capital; Sputnik ATX; Bench Management; and several angel investors including Ross Hoffman, former Chief Business Officer at Headspace and former VP of Partnerships at Twitter; and Vivek Garipalli, co-founder and CEO of Clover Health, among others. Backtracks previously closed its first seed round of funding of $2.1 million in May 2019, led by Moonshots Capital. Backtracks notes the money was raised last spring when the venture capital markets were pulling back amid uncertainty due to pandemic lockdowns.
“Like the Stripe of podcasting, Backtracks is ushering in a new era to the market with the breadth and depth of their technologies,” said Kelly Perdew, lead investor and Managing General Partner at Moonshots Capital. “We recognized their potential early on with the initial funding round and have seen the breakneck pace of new technology development as a result, so that led us to participate in an additional oversubscribed round recently targeted at further fueling this momentum.” Perdew predicted what Backtracks has on the horizon will quickly distinguish the company as a leading technology platform for end-to-end management of podcasting.
Founded in 2016 by engineers Gill and Kevin Wright, Backtracks says it has processed more than 40 billion minutes of audio and powers thousands of podcasts and audio partners, including several public radio stations and programs as well as clients including NASA, McKinsey & Company, and The Memphis Grizzlies.